Americans are generally richer than Europeans (2024)

FAQs

Why are Americans wealthier than Europeans? ›

Another reason is that the U.S. has a large endowment of natural resources, while European countries often have to pay for these from overseas. There are also some indications that U.S. businesses are better at adopting new technologies than their European counterparts.

The American economy is fueled by high productivity, well developed transportation infrastructure, and extensive natural resources. Americans have the highest average household and employee income among OECD member states. In 2021, they had the highest median household income.

Key Takeaways. Overall, Europe has a lower cost of living due to lower healthcare expenses, a weakening euro currency, and low inflation. Europeans, however, tend to pay more of their income to taxes, and average wages tend to be lower than in America.

After WWI the US became wealthier than any individual nation in Europe. Britain was the 2nd wealthiest, and had been the wealthiest for some time, with Germany and France not too far behind.

Net worth as measured by the simple mean average is even more eye-popping: In 2022, U.S. households had a net worth of more than $1 million on average for the first time in history after rising 23% from 2019—a figure that's skewed higher because it includes the ultra-wealthy.

According to the 2023 Global Wealth Report by Credit Suisse, Switzerland once again came out on top when it comes to the mean average wealth per adult at a whopping $685,230. Furthermore, roughly one adult in six owns assets worth more than one million U.S. dollars.

But sorting nations for their per-capita average wealth—or even for their median per-capita wealth—other countries win out. Using the first metric, Switzerland is the richest country in the world at an average per-capita wealth of around $685,000, followed by Luxembourg and the United States.

While the United States has consistently had the world's largest economy for some time, in the last fifty years the world has seen the rapid rise and fall in relative terms of the economies of other countries while the share of the United States has also fluctuated.

Is America the richest country? ›

Which is the wealthiest country? With an overall net worth of $145.8 trillion and a GDP of $25.46 trillion, the US is the number one richest nation in the world.

The economies of Canada and the United States are similar because both are developed countries. While both countries feature in the top ten economies in the world in 2022, the U.S. is the largest economy in the world, with US$24.8 trillion, with Canada ranking ninth at US$2.2 trillion.

While the Euro has long been more valuable than the American dollar, the cost of living in the United States is significantly higher than across Europe on average. Basic expenses for a single adult with no children in the U.S. is $2,508 per month, compared to an average of $1,746 per month in Europe.

That would largely depend on one's definition of desirable lifestyle. I moved to North America from Europe when I was young, and noticed vast difference in quality of living between the Old World (Europe) and the New World (North America). But those differences are noticeable only if you're using my personal yardstick.

It had a slightly higher GDP (measured in US dollars) than the United States in 2008, but by 2022, the EU economy was a third smaller than the US ¹ See for example Gideon Rachman, 'Europe has fallen behind America and the gap is growing', Financial Times, 19 June 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/80ace07f-3acb-40cb-9960 ...

There are several reasons for this:

The US has a large and diversified economy; from the tourism industry and services sector to the banking industry and renewable energy, the country is relatively resilient to economic shocks.

In 2021, households with a White householder made up 65.3% of all U.S. households and held 80.0% of all wealth. Those with a Black householder made up 13.6% of all U.S. households but held only 4.7% of all wealth.

With a fast-growing economy, a strong labour market and falling inflation, the US has outpaced its counterparts in Europe and elsewhere.

Our new database reveals that aggregate wealth relative to national income has evolved similarly in Europe than in the United States, while wealth inequality has grown much faster in the United States than in Europe since the mid-1980s.